this is exactly how i feel. And soviet enginers, get no love and still they lost every engangement against pios before this patch.
Regardless of the fact that Combat Engineers only cost 170 manpower, yes Pioneers will duel well vs Combat Engineers and Rear Echelon, but Rear Echelon and Combat engineers have far better map pressure by being able to fight versus combat squads by using heavy cover and garrisons. Something that Pioneers can not do. As it is in the live game, Pioneers will never win vs Cons or Riflemen, even after a perfect Ambush.
Furthermore, Pioneers have worse synergy with Flamers not only because their MP40's have neglible medium range damage, which is where Flamers are generally used, but Combat Engineers can be merged by Concripts.